New Room!
They don't actually have a new room, but they've officially made this one theirs. I had an idea a few weeks ago that it might help the girls gain a sense of home if we let them decorate their room. Since then we've been on the lookout for materials that reflect the girls interests, and this week we finally put it all together and brightened up the room! Using two calendars and a stack of used coffee table books from the library bookstore, we created posters of the Ninja Turtles, famous architectural landmarks (think Coloseum, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, etc.), Impressionist art, contemporary art, ancient art, and Medieval church art/architecture. (If anyone runs across cheap calendars/posters of the Avengers or the Justice League, let me know. The girls were disappointed not to find any). Of course, during the several hours it took to cut, tape, hang, etc., we talked all about the places and artists we were featuring on their walls. The girls, Monkey in particular, clearly have their favorite artists: They can now identify, based on style, paintings by Degas, Monet, Picasso, and Pollock. We ran across examples of art in several books at the library where they excitedly demonstrated that ability. We also looked up examples of art by the four artists the Ninja Turtles are named after.

Library Day
We were snowed in on our usual library day, so we squeezed in a visit on a busy day later in the week (we decided not to risk getting snowed again next week--it's a real possibility). We discovered a disappointing number of random grown ups hanging out in the kids section and using the computers, so I think we'll try to stick to mornings from now on. Of course, this didn't stop us from gathering our usual large stack of books to take home!
Fancy Nancy, Aspiring Artist
Olivia
Eloise (the girls noted that Olivia and Eloise are alot alike--they both wear people out!)
Walter the Baker
How Do You Wokka-wokka? (a familiar favorite--our copy is packed away in storage)
The Dot
Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the Southwest
A Big Guy Took My Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book, and Monkey's personal check out)
Cinderella (an expanded version that takes place in Venice; Bug was thrilled to find a book that took place in one of the cities featured in her poster)

Guess where we're going to visit next?
Liberty
The Statue of Liberty
The New York Colony
Empire State Building

Three Rs
For math this week, Goose continues to practice number recognition up to 20 and she's been practicing counting as high as she possibly can with a few prompts (for the record, counting to 100 will keep a 4 year old occupied for a very long time). Monkey and Bug continued working on drills, and Bug has stepped up to doing timed drills for adding 4, 5, and 6 to single digits. They both also practiced skip counting, subtraction, fractions, and counting money.

Monkey and Bug had been getting bored with spelling and the words just weren't sticking with them very well, so I took advantage of a new feature on one of my favorite educational websites to create some fun worksheets for them. Thanks to Education.com this week's spelling unit involved a word search, crossword puzzle, word scramble, and fill-in-the-blank activity. The girls also did some grammar worksheets about singular and plural nouns, capitalization of proper nouns, and subject-verb agreement with being verbs.

For reading this week, Goose added another new letter: T. She's been doing really well with the rhyming and sounding out activities. This week Monkey read A Big Guy Took My Ball and Fancy Nancy, Aspiring Artist. Bug read a little more of the Magic Treehouse book, but decided she wasn't really ready for it yet (the author used a lot of unconventional punctuation and it's really throwing this early reader off her groove). She finished the week reading Bread and Jam for Frances instead. Both girls do quite a bit of reading on their own too.

History
I forgot to mention last week, but the girls had the opportunity to view some really impressive models of Revolutionary War-era ships (six-foot-long models with accurate rigging and lots of tiny cannons--very cool).

This week we read a well-illustrated chapter book about the lost colony of Roanoke. After learning so much about the Revolutionary War recently, the girls were interested to hear about the challenges of the very earliest English colonies and how it all got started. Of course, the ongoing mystery and theories about the colonists disappearance are also fascinating!

Just Keep Swimming
Swimming lessons were a better experience this week (we missed the last week or two thanks to snow). I was able to speak with Bug's teacher before class about what she's actually capable of, and Miss K challenged her a little more this week. Monkey and Goose had the teacher to themselves this week, and she also stepped up her expectations this week: They both had the opportunity to do a few front strokes solo!

I also got in the pool with the girls an additional day this week, and they are all making progress. Bug in particular appreciates this time to work on the skills she knows she needs to keep up with her peers in her Penguin class in California (treading water, diving for rings, front stroke, back stroke, streamline gliding, side breathing). In particular this week, she was determined to get a ring off the bottom of the shallow end (3 feet deep). She finally managed it by having me stand close to where she dropped the ring, so she could hold unto my leg to keep herself underwater. Monkey and I worked on her ability/willingness to keep her face underwater for more than a split second (she's up to 5 seconds now!) and on floating on her back instead of panicking when I let go (she's now willing for me to go hands-free if she has her head resting on my shoulder). I didn't work on anything in particular with Goose this week, but thanks to a floaty the lifeguard calls a "froggy," she happily swam laps doing the front stroke and back stroke. Her favorite activity is playing fetch with herself with a rubber ducky Bug found in the bin of diving rings. Good times.

We're Getting Musical!
The girls have long expressed some musical interests, and we decided that our temporary stay here would be a good time for a trial run with an obvious "You have to stick it out until . . . " point if it doesn't prove to be a long-term interest.

This week, Goose started piano lessons with Dr. J, a lovely senior citizen with a fantastic basement studio (it includes two baby grand pianos, a harpsichord, and a 1920's Victrola he rebuilt himself, as well as a couch for mom and siblings to wait in comfort). They started off listening to a song on the Victrola and a short piece he played on the harpsichord. Goose was clearly enthralled, although she became suddenly teary and hesitant when it came time to actually sit down at the piano and interact with Dr. J. She was obviously paying attention though: later that day when I asked if she remembered what he taught her, she didn't hesitate to explain that she learned about middle C (to play with her thumbs), D (to play with her right index finger), and B (to play with her left index finger). She even used the edge of the kitchen table to demonstrate the pattern he taught her to play with those three notes. On Sunday we took advantage of one of several keyboards at church to practice on something other than the kitchen table, and she spent some extra time softly plunking out her own tune with notes she "doesn't know the names of yet."

Bug doesn't start violin lessons until next week, but we acquired her rental violin this week. She is SO excited. She already has the names of the parts of her violin memorized, and she spent some time poring over the pictures of kids in proper postures for playing. Fortunately, we've prepped for the fact that this is not the easiest instrument to play, and she definitely seems up for the challenge.

Unfortunately, we're having some trouble getting Monkey started: She's been interested in drums for several years already, but now that she's reached a maturity level that we think would handle formal lessons, we can't seem to find a snare drum teacher in our area. I'm currently in the market for decent lessons on DVD to at least get her started.

The Breakers
Bug recently asked the definition of "mansion," and "really big, fancy house" didn't seem to satisfy her as an answer. This weekend we got to show her and her sisters a classic Gilded Age example, and I think they were duly impressed! The Breakers had a great family audio tour that even kept Goose interested. We were a bit disappointed that the tour didn't include a behind the scenes peek at the servants quarters on the top floor, but the girls seemed fascinated by that aspect of the household, and the ride home involved answering questions like: What did the servants do? Why did the Vanderbilts hire them? Does anybody have servants today? Would our family have servants if we lived back then?

Fire Safety
Thanks to some extra materials handed down from a home schooling friend here, the girls did a little fire safety lesson. I wasn't really involved. The big girls explained "stop, drop, and roll" to Goose and read a rhyme about it. They talked about calling 9-1-1 for emergencies, and figured out the project that came with it. They each had a bag of construction paper cutouts and together they figured out that it was pieces of a fire truck.

(I've no idea why the photo won't post right side up.)